CASPER —Mike Mitchell said he hasn’t been lucky over his 41 years when it comes to winning prizes, honors or much of anything else.
That changed when he received an email last month telling him he was a finalist in the Maverick 2024 Endless Expedition Annual Sweepstakes, a partnership between Maverick convenience stores and Mountain Dew.
At first, Mitchell thought the email was a scam. He spoke with a company representative and then understood he was randomly selected from contest entrants across the U.S. West with three others for a chance at the annual grand prize.
He traveled to Snowbird ski resort, east of Salt Lake City on Nov. 8, where he found out he’d won a custom 2023 Dodge Ram 1500 with an array of premium accessories, a rugged Black Bean teardrop camper trailer and $20,000 cash. The package was valued at nearly $170,000.
“I never thought I was going to win,” he said.
Four Mountain Dew flavors were put in a canvas bag and the four finalists were asked to draw from the bag. Mitchell drew a Baja Blast.
Baja Blast And Win
Everybody finalist held their bottles and their breath as a company representative did the big reveal using a bi-fold posterboard shaped like a Mountain Dew bottle. On the poster was a Baja Blast.
The other finalists looked at Mitchell and started congratulating him.
“My wife was in tears, and I was still kind of beside myself because, you know, I don’t normally win stuff like this,” he said. “I can't remember ever winning anything, aside from small things in school and growing up, you know, school, church — they do little giveaways and raffles and stuff like that, small things, but nothing of this magnitude.”
Mitchell said he joined Maverick gas station’s rewards program called the Adventure Club at one of its Gillette locations to help save on his gas bill driving between Casper and Gillette.
He works for a mining service company as a welder. In that job he provides maintenance and welding on all sorts of heavy equipment operated in area mines.
Once in the rewards program, he downloaded the company’s Adventure Club app that allowed him to direct the “trail points” customers earn to the annual sweepstakes. He said earned points from gas and a lot of coffee over the past nine months.
The Endless Expedition sweepstakes ran from Jan. 3 to Oct. 1, 2024.
During that time, 7,000 of his points were directed into opportunities for the sweepstakes drawing.
“With the trail points you put in you can use your points to get discounts on fuel, and that’s kind of what my plan was, because driving back and forth between Casper and Gillette is 110 miles or something like that, and it does tend to get a little spendy,” he said. “And here, I used some the points for the sweepstakes and managed to pull a rabbit out of the hat on that one.”
Mitchell said he and his family love the outdoors, but he typically has not had a lot of time to enjoy vacations. He plans to get one in next year for sure.
The Black Bean teardrop trailer is designed to be off grid and comes with solar panels, batteries, an outdoor kitchen, air compressor, full-size spare time and more.
Mary and Mike Mitchell could not believe it when they became the winners of a Maverick gas station and Mountain Dew sweepstakes. (Courtesy Maverick) 
The new 2023 Dodge Ram 1500 and Black Bean off-road tear drop trailer were ready for the Mitchell’s new adventure after he pulled the Baja Blast from a canvas bag. (Courtesy Maverick) 
Mike and Mary Mitchell check out their new trailer which has everything needed for off-the-grid camping trip. (Courtesy Maverick)
Pickup Blessing
The new pickup is a huge blessing. He bought his wife Mary a red 2015 GMC Yukon a few years ago so she and his children could travel to Gillette on weekends when he was working.
He had an older pickup that he used, but the engine went on that just over a year ago and he was using the Yukon for his work.
Both the truck and trailer have special paint wraps that promote the Endless Expedition Sweepstakes and the company.
Mitchell said he has joined other gas station rewards programs, but none of them offer the scale of prize opportunities like Maverick.
“They do big giveaways like that once a year,” he said. “I would definitely recommend that people sign up for Maverick trail points and do that.”
Mitchell moved to Wyoming from Texas in 2005, received his welding training in Casper, worked in the oil fields for a while, and since 2009 for the mining industry.
He plans to put his truck and trailer together for a family road trip in late spring or summer to the Big Horn Mountains or some other destination in the state. They are still talking about potential places.
But two come to mind that he eventually hopes to camp at.
“I’d like to get out to Yellowstone and Grand Teton national park one of these years, because I've lived in Wyoming since 2005 and I've yet to get to the park,” he said.
The three runners-up in the sweepstakes were from Utah, Nevada and Colorado. Each received $5,000 cash and a $500 Maverik gift card.
With his win, Mitchell said he plans to continue using some of his points for other Maverick prize opportunities.
“From the way I understood it, if you win and you have more points to use there is no waiting (to enter) for the next prize,” he said.
Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.
